"Yet Another" Designer Thread

David Mary said:
Ryan that is a great looking design that reminds me of my favorite folding knife, the Spyderco Resilience.



Then, if I may, the only things I can see that would make the knife "better" are extending the handle scales a little forward at the bottom/front in order to hide the "choil" so it doesn't snag on paper, cardboard, fabric, etc. And, of course an opening hole. ;)
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Thanks a lot David! The Spyderco Resilience is a great, big knife with an amazing blade. I do see the resemblance now that you mention it! It wasn't intentional though. In my opinion that blade is what I consider to be the ideal EDC blade. Plenty of tip for piercing, nice run of belly for slicing or continuous motion cuts or scraping, and some flat area for anything else, carving, push cutting, general use etc.

I do like opening holes, but I'd never use a hole without Spydercos go ahead. They're never going to be topped with that and that's a given lol But that is why I added an oval cutout in the second folder for fidgety flicking guys :)

I don't mind choils, as long as they're done right. I'd much rather prefer a full use, uninterrupted cutting edge from tip to heel so that's the only reason there's barely any separation between the handle and the edge of the blade. I do like some middle ground between handle and blade, so that was my attempt to remedy that.

Also, I've always been a fan of belly on knives lol not too dramatic, but definitely noticeable as you can tell. Hunting knives and Bowies have a special place in my heart for that reason.
 
Yep, oval hole is all I meant, or at least some reasonable shape not a circle. You are right, Spyderco has a well earned trademark on the round hole.
 
David Mary said:
Yep, oval hole is all I meant, or at least some reasonable shape not a circle. You are right, Spyderco has a well earned trademark on the round hole.
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I know it was all in jest, but in reality yes I could never think of using it. Between us I think I prefer an oval or a modified version of one, such as what the folks at Giantmouse use on their knives. Anything chamfered is going to be a winner by me!
 
Mecha said:
Look, I know you think you want to make knives for ecommerce. Lots of upstarts think the same, but they never get any good advice, so I'll help you out.

First, you go get yourself 500 railroad spikes, a coal farrier's forge, and a 3 lb ball peen hammer, a good pair of vice grips, 500 lbs of coal, and a piece of railroad mainline.

You take those railroad spikes and you start forging them into knifes, one by one. Forge them completely to the final knife shape, none of this sissy grinder nonsense. Keep forging until every spike is a knife.

Then you take the knife billets and you start heating them up until they glow enough to where a magnet doesn't stick to them anymore, and dunk it in the creek. Do this for all 500 of them.

Then, maybe, just maybe, you'll be ready to make a knife worth a darn.
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Well, you talked me out of it. I'll just buy knives that I like...;)
 
3fifty7 said:
I think I have to respectfully disagree with Mecha Mecha (so much respect and admiration for what you do in the niche market of titanium badassery). He not trying to be the next Andy Alm. Many knife makers have never forged a thing and I don’t see that in RyanSean97 RyanSean97 either.

RyanSean97 RyanSean97 I'm not entirely sure of your intentions but I envision most of you handles in milled tumbled titanium and I like it.
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No, see, the way it works is you have to beat on metal until you hate yourself. Then, if you still want to keep doing it even though it lowkey makes you want to step in front of a moving bus or off of a tall bridge, only then do you know if you really want to do it. :D
 
Mecha said:
No, see, the way it works is you have to beat on metal until you hate yourself. Then, if you still want to keep doing it even though it lowkey makes you want to step in front of a moving bus or off of a tall bridge, only then do you know if you really want to do it. :D
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I 100% knew what you were saying. I've heard that same advice from many makers before and it never swayed me. Obviously hearing it and doing it are two different worlds, but your version is probably the best I've heard yet 😂. I've attempted a few goes at making my own blades by hand. I've hacksawed, filed, and sanded profile blanks. In fact I have a stack of blanks I cut out sitting on a desk that need to be worked one day. I've messed up 2 blanks by freehand filing the bevels and mucking them both up. But each time I loved every second of the process. It's all a learning path and I just want to get better. There's not much in my life that brings me as much joy as this hobby/profession does. It really is something amazing.
 
RyanSean97 said:
I 100% knew what you were saying. I've heard that same advice from many makers before and it never swayed me. Obviously hearing it and doing it are two different worlds, but your version is probably the best I've heard yet 😂. I've attempted a few goes at making my own blades by hand. I've hacksawed, filed, and sanded profile blanks. In fact I have a stack of blanks I cut out sitting on a desk that need to be worked one day. I've messed up 2 blanks by freehand filing the bevels and mucking them both up. But each time I loved every second of the process. It's all a learning path and I just want to get better. There's not much in my life that brings me as much joy as this hobby/profession does. It really is something amazing.
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Well if you loved every second of it then you must be doing something wrong. Ok, here's what to do: You get a large piece of steel called CPM 10V, and you get it pre-heat treated. That's an important part. Then you get a 7" angle grinder, one of the big ones, and take the safety guard off. Then you clamp the steel down to a table with a C-clamp, and start grinding. Don't stop until you have made one of these:

RInfEIO.jpg


Bonus points if you only wear flip-flops and budgie smugglers while grinding.

Once you have made a shark knife, then you will be a knife designer.
 
Mecha said:
Well if you loved every second of it then you must be doing something wrong. Ok, here's what to do: You get a large piece of steel called CPM 10V, and you get it pre-heat treated. That's an important part. Then you get a 7" angle grinder, one of the big ones, and take the safety guard off. Then you clamp the steel down to a table with a C-clamp, and start grinding. Don't stop until you have made one of these:

RInfEIO.jpg


Bonus points if you only wear flip-flops and budgie smugglers while grinding.

Once you have made a shark knife, then you will be a knife designer.
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Are you sure there isn't another much, much deeper reason stemming from all of this? 😂😂
 
RyanSean97 said:
Are you sure there isn't another much, much deeper reason stemming from all of this? 😂😂
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Well...I will say, as you gain success you're going to run into a lot of internet trolls. 😆

Always remember the cardinal rule of the internet: if you get mad, then you lost.
 
Mecha said:
Well...I will say, as you gain success you're going to run into a lot of internet trolls. 😆

Always remember the cardinal rule of the internet: if you get mad, then you lost.
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I've worked with the public most of my life at this point, and I see what goes on everyday in the world. I was blessed enough to be created with a good, sensible head on my shoulders and not one of these terrible representations of humans we have out there.

Also, when you're normal it's easy to weed out the trolls thankfully 😆. I enjoyed your attempts very much
 
What Stacy said is basically the hard truth, if you really wan't to be a knife designer, then you have to put years into knife making first.
Nobody is going to want a knife designed by somebody who isn't a professional knife maker.
Get into knife making, you can make a basic heat treating forge, buy some files and good torch. For around $100 you can rig up the bare basics and start from there.
After a few years of practice, making knives every week or day then you can actually design knives and make them. You need an inventory, or portfolio so to speak, not just drawings on paper. You don't want to approach a serious company with some drawings on paper and ideas in your head. Approach them with a catalogue and bag full of knives you have made. You will be easily dismissed if you don't have anything to back up your ideas with. Now it's harder to dismiss somebody with a shop full of finished knives for sale.
Then even if nobody wants your knife designs, you just made them all yourself, so you succeeded anyway and are now a knife maker and designer for yourself.
 
i think the most difficult part of designing a knife is that almost every eye appealing blade and handle shape has been used already. the original idea is the hardest part. some of us have been into knives for 40 years, and we know instantly when we have seen a blade or handle shape before on an "original" design.
 
john april said:
i think the most difficult part of designing a knife is that almost every eye appealing blade and handle shape has been used already. the original idea is the hardest part. some of us have been into knives for 40 years, and we know instantly when we have seen a blade or handle shape before on an "original" design.
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I completely agree. Its very hard and I'd even say near impossible to design something 100% new, especially without it being unusable. Every functional design is out there already. I mean we've been using knives since we talked on this Earth. That's why I just want to make designs that work and that fit a lot of peoples aesthetics. I'm a big fan of neutral or simple designs, and just building on them. Options are good, making handles that can be held a number of ways, a blade that has the shape to do more than one type of cutting, etc. The more useful the better.
 
Agree on the need to at least witness the making of your designs. A lot of your value is if you can save money. Expenses are time, tooling, material loss, etc.
This is the "industrial design" aspect of knife design.

For example, how expensive is a tooling change? Putting in a fixture in a CNC setup? On a common vise setup, how many blades can you make in one pass?
Aaron Gough has shared some great knowledge on how he has changed his CNC setups to expedite the process, remove manual steps, and improve the final product. Even just knowing the way G10 fractures during cutting operations could reverse-influence your designs, such as how thin the handle scales appear to be near the ricasso. This might influence the operations you choose and add to the expense (or just not work out, potentially).

Without seeing your designs undergo these processes, you will be missing vital information.

As a practical matter, it might be worth pursuing parallel jobs (that actually pay money). Perhaps you already are. But it could be the springboard needed to gain the relevant experience
 
Londinium Armoury said:
What Stacy said is basically the hard truth, if you really wan't to be a knife designer, then you have to put years into knife making first.
Nobody is going to want a knife designed by somebody who isn't a professional knife maker.
Get into knife making, you can make a basic heat treating forge, buy some files and good torch. For around $100 you can rig up the bare basics and start from there.
After a few years of practice, making knives every week or day then you can actually design knives and make them. You need an inventory, or portfolio so to speak, not just drawings on paper. You don't want to approach a serious company with some drawings on paper and ideas in your head. Approach them with a catalogue and bag full of knives you have made. You will be easily dismissed if you don't have anything to back up your ideas with. Now it's harder to dismiss somebody with a shop full of finished knives for sale.
Then even if nobody wants your knife designs, you just made them all yourself, so you succeeded anyway and are now a knife maker and designer for yourself.
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"Nobody is going to want a knife designed by somebody who isn't a professional knife maker."
I personally agree with you...... But there is a slew of youtube commandos online who Just give "knife reviews" and a number of them feel they are qualified for designing knives...... And people buy them, for some reason?
 
Mecha said:
No, see, the way it works is you have to beat on metal until you hate yourself. Then, if you still want to keep doing it even though it lowkey makes you want to step in front of a moving bus or off of a tall bridge, only then do you know if you really want to do it. :D
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Sounds like advice I received before getting married.

"Marry the girl that drives you nuts..... the Most."
 
Crag the Brewer said:
"Nobody is going to want a knife designed by somebody who isn't a professional knife maker."
I personally agree with you...... But there is a slew of youtube commandos online who Just give "knife reviews" and a number of them feel they are qualified for designing knives...... And people buy them, for some reason?
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I think that has something to do with name recognition and following. Similar effect of the recent boxing going on, people with huge youtube followings can garnish enough hype and money in ad revenue to be taken seriously, like Logan Paul fighting Maywather. Logan didn't have to personally do the journeyman grind, because of his cult following.
Same thing applies here, if you have 100k subs a knife maker over in China might give you a test run, assuming they think a % of those 100k subs will be buying the knife off the weight of your name as a reviewer.
Might be garbage steel and standard knife, but if 5% of those 100k buy it, then it's worth a production run from China.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
"Nobody is going to want a knife designed by somebody who isn't a professional knife maker."
I personally agree with you...... But there is a slew of youtube commandos online who Just give "knife reviews" and a number of them feel they are qualified for designing knives...... And people buy them, for some reason?
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I'll admit a lot of those guys really do speak on things they don't fully know about, but that's life. Considering most of those guys don't even use what they review, it is unfortunate that those situations occur.

To be fair though, there are some rare examples of guys becoming successful and making names for themselves as designers. TJ Schwarz just recently started to produce his own blades from his own shop, and is a respected name in the industry. Liong Mah is a staple in Reate's lineup and designer list and he's famous for that specifically. Vero Engineering broke out in the knife world with his designs with a huge thanks to social media, and his knives are absolutely blowing up on the secondary right now. But we all know how those cases go as well. I'm not sure, but I just know I'm going to try my best and make it happen regardless of the process.
 
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